WARSAW (voa) – A Polish court has ordered a new trial for former communist President Wojciech Jaruzelski on charges of ordering soldiers to shoot a crowd of demonstrators during a 1970 protest.
The court based its decision on delays in the proceedings due to the illness of a judge. Polish law requires a new trial in cases where court proceedings are delayed by more than 35 days.
Immediately following the decision, court officials again started to read the long indictment against the general and his co-defendants.
The 78-year-old former president went on trial last May on manslaughter charges. Prosecutors charge that General Jaruzelski, while serving as Poland’s defense minister in 1970, ordered troops to use deadly force against workers protesting food price hikes in the country’s Baltic port cities.
44 people were killed and hundreds wounded when soldiers fired into the crowd.
General Jaruzelski and his co-defendants maintain their innocence in the case.
